Senate Blocks Patriot Act Extension!

The Senate blocked reauthorization of the Patriot Act early Saturday, and left for Memorial Day recess without a clear plan to reauthorize the bill before it expires May 31.

Senators rejected both a two-month extension of the bill the National Security Agency uses to justify its bulk collection of phone data, and a reform bill that would make phone companies responsible for keeping the data.

"Do we really want this law to expire," Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on the Senate floor after the votes concluded around 1 a.m. Saturday morning. "We've got a week to discuss it. We'll have one day to do it."

"So we better be ready next Sunday afternoon to prevent the country from being endangered by the total expiration of the program that we're all familiar with."

The NSA currently collects and stores huge amounts of metadata, which includes basic information about phone calls, such as phone numbers, and the date, time and location of a call. Only 37 people are able to run a given phone number against the data if the NSA and Department of Justice approve the request, and if a special foreign intelligence court determines they have "a reasonably articulated suspicion."